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CV writing advice

Creating a great CV can be a tricky task, here is some important CV writing advice tailored to the technical industries:

Employers and recruiters can receive 100’s of CVs for one vacancy so the amount of time an employer can spend reading a single CV is very limited. This means it is very easy to miss an essential detail if you don’t make the important information clear and easy to see.

In order to attract the attention of the reader, it is important to make it very clear what you have done and what you are capable of.

With this in mind as a job seeker looking for work you may find these simple rules helpful:

Read the advert or job spec closely and tailor your CV to the vacancy. Make sure that the keywords and experience that the employer is looking for feature prominently on your CV

Do not assume that the person you are sending your CV to has any idea about your area of expertise. If human resources or a recruiter is reviewing your CV first they may not understand your specific skill set if it is very niche (unless you use CK IT) This is why it is important that your CV is tailored to the job spec and advert. Make it very obvious to the reader what you have done, when you did it and where.

Make your contact details obvious and easy to see. What is the point in being clearly the best candidate for a job if the people trying to ask you to come in for an interview cannot find your contact details? This should be on the first page of your CV at the top, not hiding in a footer at the bottom of the last page.

Try to make sure that your current role or details of what you are doing now are on the first page. Put your other experience on your CV in reverse chronological order. If the employer can see what you are doing right now, it makes it easier for them to see if you are likely to be available and if you have the right experience and gained it recently.

Keep irrelevant information to a minimum – If you are going for a senior management position make sure that you are drawing attention to your relevant skills and experience. What you did when you were first starting out in your career may no longer be relevant

Make sure that there is plenty of open space in your CV – A CV that is very wordy can seem overwhelming to the reader so make sure that you do not send them dizzy with a mass of words. It may sound strange but a CV that is easy on the eye is more appealing to the reader. It also makes it easier to pick out the relevant information. The use of bullet points and bolding relevant titles can keep wordy CVs at bay.

Do not repeat yourself – telling the reader about the same job in different sections of your CV three times make it look like you are padding and that you do not have much to say.

Remember that your CV is the first thing an employer will see from you so if it’s full of spelling errors and mistakes then you are likely to be passed over. Get that friend that can always spot mistakes to read your CV before you send it anywhere. Alternatively, ask your CK consultant to read it over for you. You will be pleased to have them when they spot that you have nearly told a potential employer that you have “God attention to detail”. Not even your spell checker will have picked that one up.